I remember Holmes, but Godchaux was better.

Fun Fair Park in Baton Rouge. We had so many birthday parties there as kids. There was the saddest chimpanzee or gorilla caged at the park that got out when in the late 80s and took off down Airline Highway. I think they made them give it to the zoo after that.

Oh my gosh, I really miss Marshall Fields. I also miss Famous Barr and Filene's Basement.

Haha, I saw this after I posted it about it, but I really miss Filene's! I used to go there all the time with my mom when I was younger and they had the best deals.

Dogpatch USA
It was a hillbilly-themed amusement park in northwest Arkansas.
Opened in the late 1960's & closed in 1993.
The motel at the park were mobile homes -- no joke!
As a kid, a fun weekend was 1 day at Dogpatch USA, then drive to Branson MO for a day at Silver Dollar City.

in Tulsa, I miss the restaurant The Library. They had the best boneless chicken & squaw bread.

By the way, you can still ride the Chicago Loop roller coaster from Old Chicago. It's now at Canobie Lake Park in New Hampshire and has been renamed Canobie Corkscrew.

Sea World in Aurora OH. It makes me sad that my kids won't get that same experience.

Still searching for a recipe for the Crunchy Chocolate Chewies they had at Old Tyme Deli. Miss their bratwurst with sauerkraut as wells as their blinis desperately.

The Winter Wonderland pieces that survive can be seen at the Pink Palace Children's Museum in Memphis, every holiday season. I've never seen anything like the original though. I miss old Downtown Memphis.

Godchaux's was indeed wonderful, but I grew up shopping in the D.H. Holmes in Mobile which was near my grandparents Gulf Coast second home. I learned about Godchaux's when when we moved to NOLA in 1979.

I forgot about that! They were always recruiting students at the U of Arkansas for summer jobs! But I did not care to wear a Daisy Mae get-up. Wasn't it in Harrison?

My Dad and I had a really fun visit to Dogpatch back around 1971 or '72. Rode my first roller coaster there. We also hit Silver Dollar City which was also awesome.

Thanks for that link! I see some things from my childhood there - Bell's Apple Orchard and Wauconda Orchards, Discovery Zone, Marshall Field's, and Ben Franklin stores.

The Red Barn -- Midwest regional fast food chain (it was in Cincinnati).
Their cheeseburgers were much better than McDonalds.

In the Cincinnati Ohio Area we had two small amusement parks when I was growing up that my dad would always have his company picnics at, they were called Americana, and Fantasy Farm. These two were the low budget rivals of the main amusement park here, Kings Island. Americana and Fantasy Farm had some really neat little haunted houses and a cool go kart track as well.
There are a dozen rides from Kings Island (and for those who've ever seen episodes f the Brady Bunch, yes this is the amusement park they came to in that vacation episode!).
My kids go to the park now and I tell them about all the neat rides that aren't there anymore that they would have loved, like the Old Time Taxi's where you could drive around a track, or the old corvettes they had too where you could drive.......
My absolute favorite ride there as a kids was called the Floor Dropout.....where you'd be stuck against the wall as it spun and the floor would drop down........

Sometimes I wish there was enough money to rebuild these old nostalgic places.....

How could I forget Fantasy Farm!!?! I guess growing up with Kings Island so close, it was easy for FF to be "mentally absorbed."

Did you watch Uncle Al and his wife Captain Wendy? lol

Also, in the Cincinnati Ohio area, there is another small amusement park near the river called Coney Island. Although I was born when this park was in its haydey, there were a ton of old rides there that are long gone....rollercoasters, a haunted house, and the best was an old steam train that went around the whole park. My youngest son is in love with trains and I took him to a place thats by our house called EnterTRAINment Junction....its an incredible train display and fun house for kids.....in one of the sections they built a replica of the old Coney Island as it existed in the 1960s and early 70s.....with all working rides....its way too cool, and I'm bummed because my kids keep wishing they could have ridden those rides.

Oh, and one last thing about old places long gone...my wife is from Rhode Island and she says there was an old amusement park called Rocky Point that has been since torn down. They made a documentary about it. It also seemed like a great little park and its a shame its not there either. When we go there to visit her mom I would have liked to have been able to take the kids there also.....